Top 10 Influential Indian Men Of 2015

If You're Unfamiliar With These Indian Influencers, It's Time To Study Up

AskMen has offices all around the world, with their own teams of local editors determined to bring you the content that matters to your life. To complement this year's Boss List, AskMen India has assembled a list of leading Indian men from various fields setting a benchmark for the rest to follow. We bring you a list of 10 noteworthy Indian influencers from 2015.

Milind Soman (Actor)

Milind Soman is a well-known model, Bollywood actor and producer. He was also a competitive swimmer, who first turned heads when he was featured in singer Alisha Chinai’s music video “Made in India” in 1995.In 2015, he successfully completed the Ironman Triathlon in Switzerland, one of the toughest races in the world, in which participants are required to swim 3.8 km, cycle 180.2 km and run 42.2 km — all within 16 hours. The 50-year-old actor successfully achieved this feat in 15 hours and 19 minutes.

Gurpreet Singh Sandhu (Sportsman)

Gurpreet Singh Sandhu is known internationally for his exceptional goalkeeping skills in football. He made history in 2015 by becoming the first Indian to play for top division European club Norwegian Tippeligaen Stabæk. The 23-year-old goalkeeper kept a clean sheet in a 6-0 win for his club against Runar in April.

Amitabh Bachchan (Actor)

Amitabh Bachchan, who has won three National Awards for acting, rose to fame in 1970s as the “angry young man” of Bollywood. In April of this year, he won the prestigious Padma Vibhushan, India’s second highest civilian award. And at the age of 73, Mr Bachchan is so successful that he earns more money than Hollywood stars like Johnny Depp (as per Forbes’ list most recent list of highest-paid actors).

Raghav Chadha (Politician)

Raghav Chada is the official spokesman for the AAP (Aam Aadmi Party) political party, and played a crucial role in bringing them to power. He was also one of the youngest ever to get a license to practice as a CA (chartered accountant). In 2015, at the age of 26, he is undoubtedly the best spokesperson for India. He was an active part of the communication strategy team in AAP’s election campaigns, and worked on drafting the Delhi Lokpal Bill

Sunder Pichai (Google CEO)

After leading the teams responsible for the development of Google Chrome and Chrome OS, GMail and Google Maps, Sunder Pichai was named as the CEO of Google in August. As per news reports, he is a great team player and known as someone who can handle tough negotiations calmly. He is believed to have played a major role in Google’s acquisition of Nest. Sunder is the second Indian man (after Satya Nadella) to head one of the most important technology companies in the world.

Kunal Bahl (Snapdeal CEO)

At the age of 30, Kunal Bahl runs one of India’s largest online marketplaces, Snapdeal.com, which he also helped create. Few entrepreneurs have the courage to take risks and change their business model during the start-up stage, but Kunal Bahl has done so twice. And the third time has been the charm for Snapdeal, as this year it acquired mobile recharge services firm Freecharge in April for $450 million in a bid to create the largest mobile commerce business in the country.

Sameer Kulavoor (Illustrator)

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Sameer heads independent design studio Bombay Duck Designs, which has been home to some of the country’s most avant-garde design work, including illustrations for brands like Gillette and Pepsi. In 2015, Sameer captured attention as the illustrator for Nike’s Bleed Blue campaign for the 2015 World Cup. He is considered among the top 200 illustrators in the world and has once again partnered with Nike to work on cricket jerseys for IPL this year.

Amish Tripathi (Author)

Amish Tripathi is a million-dollar author who Forbes India has ranked among the country's top 100 celebrities three years in a row — in 2012, 2013 and 2014. His debut work The Immortals of Meluha was a bestseller that broke all records, with 2.5 million copies being sold in print. In 2015, he was named “India's First Literary Popstar 2015.” His most recent book Scion of Ikshvaku was released in June through a Twitter interview by Bollywood director Karan Johar. In addition to the Indian movie rights of his work being sold to Karan Johar’s Dharma Productions, the international movie rights to The Immortals of Meluha are in the pipeline. Amish is represented by Creative Artists Agency, a top Hollywood-based talent agency, for movie deals on the Shiva Trilogy.

Raghuram Rajan (Governor, Reserve Bank of India)

Rajan was chief economic adviser to India's Ministry of Finance in 2012 and is known for his efforts in curbing inflation. He was honored with the prestigious Governor of the Year Award in 2014 from London-based financial journal Central Banking. In 2015, he emerged as one of the strongest central bankers in the country. This year, the RBI granted 23 banking licenses to new small finance and payment banks. In his two years of service as the RBI Governor, he brought about noteworthy changes in the system, notably his adoption of the consumer price index (CPI) as the key indicator of inflation, against the recommendations of the government.

Kailash Satyarthi (Activist)

Kalyan Satyarthi founded the Bachpan Bachao Andolan in 1980 and has acted to protect the rights of more than 83,000 children in 144 countries — accomplishments that won him the Nobel Peace Prize in 2014. The honors continued to pile up; in 2015, he was awarded the Harvard Humanitarian Award for his contributions to child rights and for his efforts towards the abolition of child slavery. He is the first Indian to have won the prestigious award. More recently, he succeeded in getting child protection and welfare-related clauses included in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the United Nations, which aim to end slavery, trafficking, forced labor and violence.